Bloglander

The campaign behind Washington's successful background checks ballot measure, Initiative 594, has more plans in store for fighting gun violence across the state. 

Yesterday, on the same day that Washington's new background check laws took effect, the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility announced its policy agenda for the upcoming legislative session. The group identified six key areas in which new legislation could improve gun safety in Washington. 

Those areas include:

• increasing access to mental health services
  
• instituting "gun violence protection orders" to allow community members to petition the court to have firearms removed from a person in a mental health crisis
  
• holding adults responsible when their children use their firearm to commit gun violence 
  
• adding some violent misdemeanors, like stalking and reckless endangerment, to the list of factors that make someone ineligible to buy or possess firearms
  
• notifying family members and domestic violence survivors when law enforcement returns previously confiscated firearms to offenders 
  
• implementing policies to address lead-related safety and health violations at gun ranges
  

"Washingtonians are no longer interested in inaction on gun violence policies that we've seen for many years before 594 passed," says Geoff Potter, communications director of the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. "We don't expect that all of this will see action in this session, but certainly, there will be many things that do and we're going to be actively working on those."  

Read more about its legislative priorities below.

Policy Agenda